Driven by huge domestic market demand, China's milk yield has increased by ten times in about ten years. In 2006, China's milk output amounted to 30 million tons, making China the world's third largest milk producer, following India and America, Xinhua News Agency reported on its website.
In the past ten years, the average yearly increase in the rate of milk output was 14.6%. Especially since 2000, the rate reached 23%. The milk yield of 2005 totaled 27.5 million tons.
In the opening ceremony of the first International Milk Industry Festival, held in Inner Mongolia, Pan Beilei, president of the China State Commission of the International Dairy Federation, said that, due to the rapidly developing economy, improved living standards and changed dietary habits, the production, supply, and sales of China's dairy products have rapidly increased accordingly. Presently, the yearly increase in the volume of China's milk output occupies 50% of the world's total increasing volume. China has become a huge market in the global dairy industry.
Though China's dairy industry is developing fast, there is still a large gap, compared with the world's largest dairy powers. In 2006, the world's milk output was 0.644 billion tons and the per capita volume was 100 kilograms. Meanwhile, China's per capita volume only equaled a quarter of the world's average output. | |